


The Freedom of the Forest

by imaginary_golux



Series: October Ficlet Challenge [45]
Category: Sleeping Beauty (1959), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Genre: Epistolary, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-22 07:54:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12476880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: Prompt 23: EpistolarySnow White and Aurora strike up a correspondence. They've got a lot in common, after all.Prompt and beta by my Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.





	The Freedom of the Forest

_Dear Aurora,_

_It was so pleasant to meet you at the ball this past week! I have never encountered anyone who shared quite so many experiences with me - we must find time to speak further, as I must admit even those dearest to me sometimes seem not to understand quite how affecting my experiences have been…_

*

Dearest Snowdrop,

I am so pleased to hear from you! As you say, it is very difficult to find anyone with similar experiences to ours - to speak of them with someone who _knows_ will be the greatest of reliefs - I have been turning it over in my head, and I cannot quite decide whether it would be worse to have eaten an apple than to prick my finger on the spindle.

*

_Dearest Aurora,_

_How good to hear from you! I hope you continue well - it is rather cold here, and I have been sneezing, alas, which does render the hours rather long. Also I have been finding it...tedious, perhaps, is the word, to sit and do needlework for hours on end. With my dwarves, you see, I was accustomed to keep the house, with all of the cooking and sweeping and gardening that implies, but here...it is not appropriate for a princess to cook, or sweep, or garden, I suppose. And of course I cannot complain - what should I complain of? Not being allowed to do the hard labor my servants do? - but to you, my dear, I may open my heart without fear of disapproval._

*

Darling Snowdrop,

Oh, it is so good to get your letters! I am dreadfully sorry to hear about your cold; it is very chilly here as well, and the frost on the windowpanes makes beautiful patterns, but this castle is, I must confess, rather draftier and _far_ less well-heated than the fairies’ cottage. I have conceived a great love for thick woollen mittens and large blankets, even if it _does_ make Philip laugh at me.

It apparently distresses the maids to see me dancing with the mice and the sparrows. I am not sure why - though of course it is not good to have mice in the pantries, and I have asked them all very nicely to keep out of the kitchens - but they go quite pale when they see me. I hope you do not have similar difficulties!

*

_Dearest Aurora,_

_I hope the recent break in the weather has come to your kingdom as well. My cold is nearly gone, thank goodness (and a great deal of hot tea), and I have learnt that for some reason while_ cooking _is not appropriate to a princess, the brewing of medicines and perfumes_ is _, so I have been spending a great deal of time in the stillroom. I have included a bottle of my first batch of lavender perfume. (I did not think you would like rose-attar!)_

_Oh, gracious, yes, the maids and footmen get quite distressed when they see me with the birds and deer! Florian says it is simply that most people cannot attract birds by singing, and that it makes them think of witchcraft, which is...well, you know I would never even think of such a thing, not after everything Stepmother did._

_I did not think that being a princess again would be harder than living in the woods with the dwarves. It took me so long to learn to cook and clean, to be of use to them rather than a burden, and it was very hard, I must admit, but this...somehow this is harder. The dwarves never looked at me so warily as Florian’s people do._

*

Darling Snowdrop,

Oh, my dear! Of course you would never think of witchcraft, after what she did to you, and I cannot imagine how anyone could think it of you! But it does rather explain why everyone looks at us so oddly - I have told Philip that it is only the fairy magic, but even he seems rather baffled that the effects have remained even after I left their care. As though I should be a different person here in his castle than I was in the forest!

Even as you say, it is...it is very hard to learn to be a princess, after so long as the fairies’ ward. It is very odd, really; sometimes I feel that I am more constrained by rules and customs here than I ever was when I was confined to a cottage in the forest for fear of Maleficent’s malice. Yet there is no evil fairy, nor no cruel witch here to menace us, but only...what? The fear that we shall be _other_ than those around us?

Philip brought me roses the other day. They are very beautiful, and he had all the thorns stripped from their stems, and I cannot smell them without weeping.

*

_Dearest Aurora,_

_I have included with this letter some of the handkerchiefs I have embroidered; please forgive my lack of expertise in the matter. It is rather harder than it looks, and I am old to be learning it, but my early lessons I have quite forgot, alas, in the years since then._

_Florian has begun making noises about having another ball, and I am quite excited to see you in person again. I do hope you and Philip will come! I have asked for the dwarves to be invited, also, but Florian seems oddly wary of them, as though he thinks they will steal me away into the forest again. As if they would do such a thing! They would hardly take me anywhere I did not wish to go._

_...Though I do find myself dreaming of their cottage, now and then, for as you say I am the same woman now that I was in the forest, and yet I am expected to set aside all that I learned and did and_ was _during those years, and become...I know not what. My dear, my darling, I can say as much to no one else, but I know you will understand: I adore Florian, truly I do, but I sometimes think I would be far happier had be been a woodcutter’s son, who would expect his wife to cook and clean and tend the garden, and to live in the forest’s bounds for all his days. How shall I reconcile the freedom of the forest - constrained as it was by fear of Stepmother - with the confines of these stone walls?_

*

Darling Snowdrop,

Were I there I should put my arms around you at once, and hold you until the world made sense to both of us. I have included a scarf of my own knitting, as warm as I could make it, in lieu of such an embrace - and Philip and I will of course be coming to this grand ball your Florian is throwing.

The handkerchiefs are entirely lovely, and you underestimate your own skill, my dear. At this rate you will be doing tapestries in no time.

It is a nice dream, is it not? To be again in the forest, where life made sense - to know exactly what is expected of one, and to be _good_ at it. To not be looked at with apprehension. I would like to have friends among the ladies of the court, or the serving maids, or - anyone, truly - but I am the prince’s odd wife, brought out of the forest and won from a dragon, and I have so little in common with _any_ of them. Sometimes I think these letters are the only truth I speak from one week to the next.

...Enough of that for now; we shall weep on each other in private when we meet again, if it seems right to do so. What color gown do you think I should wear for this grand ball? I am fond of pink, but I have just found the most beautiful bolt of green silk. And what color will you be wearing? With your coloring, darling, you could look good in nearly anything…

*

_Dearest Aurora,_

_I think this letter should arrive before you set out for our kingdom, so I will tell you to bring both the pink and the green gowns, as there will likely be several days of dancing._

_I can barely wait to see you again. It has been far too long._

**Author's Note:**

> So Best Beloved and I are doing an October ficlet challenge. We each generated a list of pairings we'd be willing to write and a list of prompts we wanted the other person to write, and then traded prompts lists without knowing what the other person's pairing lists were. We'll be doing a ficlet each every day in October. Should be fun!
> 
> I am, as ever, imaginarygolux on tumblr.


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